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Jade Temple
Britt The Jade Temple is a large temple made from jade, giving the temple a shiny green colour. Parts of the temple, especially the floor, are also made of marble. The temple was designed to worship the God of Land, hence the colour green which represents nature. Inside the temple is a massive statue of the God of Land, who is a big, fat, smiling man. There are only a few priests at the temple but many people from across Shan Shui like to visit this temple. CityCategory:Location Page Tale City article: Tale The Jade Temple is located near to the city of Tale. Surrounding the city is a large forest, through which runs the river that eventually forks into the lake where the temple is found. The forest is filled with magical beings that often watch the temple from the lake's banks. Description Appearance Outside To reach the Jade Temple, visitors must travel to it by boat. The temple itself is located at the centre of a large lake in the middle of a forest. Travellers usually sail boats down the river from the city and then across the lake to the temple steps. The lake water glows faintly blue because of special algae that grows on the surface of the shallow lake's bed. The bland fish inside the lake seem brilliantly magical because of the mystical blue light. Boats can tether to posts at the foot of the stairs and people can then climb up to the temple itself. The steps are made of marble, coloured white with black streaks through it. There are no doors or windows, only doorways and openings - all empty of glass or wood. The walls rise up tall into the air, rising up above the canopy of the surrounding forest. The top of the temple is a large, marble dome with a small, jade, spherical symbol at the very top. The glassless windows are very thin and tall and are in lots of lines around the whole temple. Sometimes birds can be seen flying in and out of them. At night the bottom of the temple is lit up by the glowing lake, but the dome at the top is hidden in the darkness. Inside The inside of the temple has marble floors and jade walls. The first passage from the outside to the inside is very narrow and a little tall, but when the visitor steps out of the passage and into the temple proper they would find the rooms to be very large, spacious and incredibly tall. There are no ceilings to divide the temple into floors, meaning that the inside of the marble dome can be seen when a person looks up. Many people experience vertigo because the temple is so tall. Although there is technically no second floor, there is a balcony that allows visitors to look down upon the first floor. To reach the balcony there are narrow staircases at the edges of the room. At the centre of the largest and longest room is the massive statue of the God of the Land. He is also carved from jade and is a large fat man with a bald head and a long beard that reaches his feet. He is also depicted with a large bag on his back filled with tools for exploration. His clothing has a lot of ancient writing on them. The meanings of the ancient texts are re-written onto pedestals around the statue that visitors can read. The rooms are lit by glass spheres that contain water and algae from the lake, giving the green walls an added blue colour during the night time. These spheres rest upon human-sized pillars with bowl shape at the top. At the very end of the temple are much smaller rooms. These rooms are for residents of the temple, including the priests, guests or anyone else allowed to stay at the temple. Age/History The temple was built over a thousand years ago, though it has grown much over the centuries - starting its existence as a tiny shrine. It has always been a temple devoted to the God of the Land, even though it now mostly serves as a museum. Purpose The Jade Temple was designed for worshipping the God of the Land. People used to come to pray to him and ask for guidance for anything related to the earth. Often these worshippers were travellers or farmers who needed to understand the land and pray for good luck. Today not many pray to the God of the Land, but the temple is still a beautiful place that many people like to visit. People of other religions often come to the temple to pray to their own gods due to the Jade Temple's spiritual atmosphere and solitude. People Owners TBA Residents TBA Users * Shin Ang